Track Meet

Yesterday Ethan had his 5th/6th grade track meet and it was so exciting for me to watch. It reminded me so much of my youth with the screaming fans as you run around the lap over and over and over again. I was, after all, a long distant runner. Ethan decided to run the 800m and I was very excited to see if the running genes were sent his way, literally.

So here he is at starting line and I don't know who is more nervous me or him....

and he's off and he is doing really well...got a good pace going, not so fast not so slow, right in the middle....he starts slowing down...wait a minute what is he doing? It looks like he is taking in the scenery....he is looking around and behind him and enjoying the moment! This was a race! I'm yelling at him to run. He is finally coming near me and I yell at him to start running faster and he takes off again. Oh good, one more lap and he is doing well....wait a minute....he is doing it again...he is slowing down and looking around...why is he doing that??

I'm yelling at him as he does his final stretch and completely forgot to take his picture even though the camera was right in my hand!!

Then he gets ready for the 400m. He is excited about this one because he can run as fast as he can. I remember my camera this time and took his picture at the starting line....and they were off.

He takes off and again he has a great start and is doing well, but he starts slowing down. He is looking around again and enjoying the scenery!!! At the final stretch, I'm yelling at him: "Run Ethan, Run!" He is looking around and as I am yelling at him, he looks at me and it hits him and he runs the last 100 yards as quickly as he can and comes in fifth place!!! Woo Hoo!!

He comes up to me and says that he was glad that I yelled at him to run because he said that he needed that to finish the race.

I asked him if he liked the race, and he said not really. I told him maybe he should look into the short races instead. He will be done quicker. He did the soft throw ball and the hurdles and loved doing the hurdles. I am hoping that he would enjoy this sport and continue on during his middle school and high school age.